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Friday, 18 December 2015

This post is a little bit cheeky, as it's actually my Secret Santa gift - but since I find that stocking fillers are always the hardest, I couldn't help posting it in hopes of helping someone with the same problem!

Most of these little nic-naks came from good ol' Primark! I wanted to create a little pamper box, so I went for Bath Petals, a Chocolate Face Mask and Macadamia Hair Oil. I spent ages umming and ahhhing over all the cute little options - fairy lights, mugs, candles, candle mugs, home decorations, shower gels and lotions, chocolate lip balms, manicure sets, even shampoos and conditioners!

Of course, no pamper box would be complete without chocolate! I couldn't decide between plain and caramel Dairy Milk, but luckily they were on offer in ASDA so I happily got both. I also got Reindeer Hot Chocolate from the Christmas Fair at my old primary school, they do it most years along with Reindeer dust, which you sprinkle in the garden to let the reindeer know where to go! (Side note- my mum also got me a beautiful angel made from an old book at the fair, how beautifully crazy!)

I also found some gorgeous jewellery for under a tenner in River Island, so picked out two simple choker necklaces. I especially like the simple black gem in the choker pictured at the bottom. I bought a glittery box from The Card Factory, along with the little "Merry Christmas" sprinkles to put in the box.

What are you favourite stocking fillers this year? Let me know in the comments below!

Monday, 7 December 2015

A while back I did a mini The Body Shop haul (here) in which I mentioned my interest in their Instamatte primer. I kept forgetting to use it and take it out with me, but I've finally given it a good run and I'm ready to make a review!

Instamatte has a firm, waxy texture that promises to smooth the skin as an oil controlling primer, as well as having the option to use over the top of make up during the day for touch ups. I've been using it instead of my usual primer and have noticed a massive difference. My T-zone is always extremely oily and it keeps the oily at bay, meaning the only place I have to touch up is my nose - which I find I constantly touch during the day anyway! I still set my foundation with a light dusting of powder, but I find that I don't have to add anything else as my skin starts to get dry and patchy.

I have tried putting Instamatte on top of my foundation during the day to touch it up, but as it's such a waxy texture I have to use the puff, which only moves my foundation around. If anyone has any ideas how I can use it on top, please leave me a comment below!

The only downside I really have to Instamatte is cleaning the sponge. It gets a little dry and crispy (you can sort of see this in the photos) after a day or two and is a little hard to clean, as the product makes everything a little slidy.

Have you tried Instamatte? If you like any gel based primers such as Porefessional I recommend giving it a go!

Sunday, 29 November 2015

We've all been there. After spending an hour or two perfecting your make up, maybe even trying out something new and daring, you can't help but taking a selfie to show the world. The sun is out, giving you the perfect lighting to get snap happy. But alas, no matter how many angles you try out, the photos don't do your hard work any justice!

I try to take a make up selfie once or twice a week, but I only ever post about one a month as I'm never happy. Photo's like the above are hard - I have to take a far away shot, then crop it to the eye area so that it doesn't look too blurry but still shows the eye make up. Even then, the lines look a little fuzzy, which wasn't the case IRL! Eyeshadow shots are the worst, I just don't have the eye shape for it at all.

As if all this selfie business wasn't hard enough, if you saw my MOTD at the end of the day before I take it off, you'd be even less impressed. Take the disconnected liner for example. I have deep set eyes and oily skin, so to get the liner under the eye I had to pretty much stretch the skin downwards and slowly add the line bit by bit, so that when I let go it was a smooth line. All that effort and an hour or so later, the crease under my eyes had become oily and I just had a big back smudge underneath my eyes. My mascara also always ends up melting off, leaving my lashes a bit shorter and nice black smudge under my brow bone. *sigh* It's a hard life, eh?

Comment below with the reality of your MOTD, or feel free to tell me that you're a make up magician and it all goes smoothly!

Monday, 16 November 2015

With a bit of luck, in a month I will be moving into my first ever flat that I can really call "home". (Although I always think of my parents house as the only true home) Most of the furnishings for the flat are being left for us, which makes everything a little easier, but one thing I definitely need in the bedroom is a dressing table.

As a make up artist I naturally have a lot of make up, so finding a dressing table that will either fit a set of drawers underneath or have enough storage space to accommodate my ever expanding kit, as well as fitting into the space is proving to be a little difficult. So far the two best options I've seen are the Kingston Small Dressing Table and the Floating Dressing Table from Etsy. I really, really like the idea of the Floating Dressing Table, as it takes up such little room and gives me more flexibility with its positioning.

No dressing table is complete without a mirror of course, (as well as a mini tabletop mirror if you have eyesight as bad as mine) and the dream would be an LED mirror. But, being more realistic, I'm not too fussed how the mirror looks, as long as it's tall enough for me to see in when sat down.

The last few items I'm looking for when thinking of a dressing table are storage items. Lakeland have an amazing range of pretty and practical storage, from which I already own a set of interlocking bins, which keep my drawers neat and tidy. On the table top, I've looked at a little jewellery tree, pots for make up brushes and a few jars for odds and ends like cotton pads and buds. For most of these, I have plenty of jar candles that I can use, which will be all matchy matchy and pretty, but if not there's plenty of nice options at Lakeland!

Have you got a dressing table? how have you decorated it? Let me know in the comments!

Sunday, 8 November 2015

"Aubergine Fox specialise in creative design and gifts inspired by
nature, colour, woodland critters and all things vintage, with an added
contemporary twist."

When I was younger I was never much of a jewellery person, borrowing from my mum whenever I had an occasion. But when I turned 18, I wanted some sort of keepsake and was fortunate enough to be gifted with two beautiful dress rings. Since then, I became more interested in jewellery and when I discovered Aubergine Fox on Twitter I couldn't resist their beautiful jewellery.

I was drawn to Aubergine Fox because of the name - I mean, duh, I love foxes - so when I had a look at their Etsy and saw the little fox ring, I couldn't resist. I was also looking for necklaces and loved the simple designs of the delicate triangle and curved bar.

After my first purchase, I kept an eye on the website and slowly made a mini wishlist. When October payday came along, I spent a small amount of time deciding what to go for, finally settling on the stag ring, heart ring and howling wolf necklace.

I love that all the designs are just the right amount of cute and quirky, coming beautifully packaged with personalised tags and thread!

Sunday, 25 October 2015

I'm not a massive "holiday" fan, but if I ever have to choose a favourite, I always go for Halloween. I actually don't have a reason behind it, it's just always been my answer! I do love a good fancy dress party and it's the only way I actually celebrate Halloween, so I guess that's why. This year, I've bought an outfit - Anna from Frozen, duh - but I don't actually have any plans to go out. So the most Halloween-esque thing I've been up to is pumpkin carving!

I've never carved a pumpkin before, but today myself and Scott decided to give it a go. I chose a little round pumpkin and Scott went for a much bigger one, which I soon learned was the better tactic! I did the honours of cutting open the the tops and scooping out the insides, before we settled down to draw on our designs and give the pumpkin carving game a go.

Scott chose a traditional spooky pumpkin face, but I decided to dive straight into the deep end and attempt the Skyrim dragon emblem. I googled the emblem and drew it as neatly as I could on the pumpkin. In hindsight I drew it too narrow, making a lot of the design very flimsy and hard to cut around.

The actual carving was surprisingly easy and I think I did ok for my first attempt! What do you guys think? Have you carved a pumpkin this year?